First brew ever

Thats right, I've never made any type of alcoholic beverage. I figured I might as well start with a mead ^_^ I'm really trying to be cheap because 1 I don't have money and 2 I'm not sure if I'm going to like brewing(I sure hope I do). So I'll probably use a plastic 5 gal. water jug..I know plastic is not the best, but it can't be that bad right? My plan is to use this recipe http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=119&Itemid=6 because its quick and it doesn't seem that difficult to mess up. Plus when it comes to new alcohol and a new experience I get impatient. What do you guys think? Also is there a website that has a detailed step by step that I can follow cause I really don't want to mess it all up.

Well, mead is the longest fermenting beverage that I know of. Good mead needs 3-5 YEARS to be good. Also, mead is more expensive to make than wine because of the cost of honey. That quick you've got there is ok, and it has the directions you need. Those directions are already step by step- I don't think you could break it down easier.

Instead of making 5 gallons at a time, I'd make one gallon first and see how I liked it. You can just use a one gallon glass jug- the kind cheap wine or cider comes in. You need an airlock, and the ingredients listed and some siphon tubing and that's it!

Awesome. Yeah, a one gallon would be quite a bit smarter to start out with. I didn't know mead took that long to produce. If you think that 3 week mead recipe is alright than I'll stick with it, but now I'm alittle skeptical about whether it would be any good. For future what are the faster producing alcoholic beverages? Should I start out with something different instead? (My priorities are easy to make and I guess fast. I know that taste will suffer, but I'd rather check out the process to see the trouble of doing it than a fantastic taste at this point in time.) Thanks for all the help.

Well, this is the second time I've posted this one today:

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine
2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate
1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
water to make 1 gallon
wine yeast
Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.

Go ahead and look in the wine making forum- there's alot more info on this stuff in there. But, in my mind, from fastest to slowest: beer, wine, mead. I started as a winemaker, but that takes a long time. So, I switched to beer! I still have wine going, but the beer is 6 weeks from brewing to drinking. (Sometimes a bit less, but always by 6 weeks for the 5-6% stuff).

For making wine (and mead) though, you need less equipment. A 1 gallon glass jug, or better yet a 4L Carlo Rossi jug is about all you need along with an airlock and some cheap siphon tubing.

That 3 week mead recipe is alright- I've made Joe's Ancient Orange and it's fine. Although, I made it last summer and it's still tasting "hot", like cough syrup. Remember, anything with 13% alcohol (or more) is going to taste alcohol-ish until it ages. Try the Welch's recipe, or try cider. Cider is faster, easier, cheaper, and a good start to brewing.

Cool I'll check out the wine recipe. Well, actually I was sharing my interest in making alcoholic beverages with my roommate and the next time I saw him he had come back from the supermarket with some of the ingredients ^_^ He got the easy stuff but couldn't find any of the more essential ingredients. He did get some dry yeast, but its bread yeast. Would that work? I figure you can get the yeast, acid, and the enzyme at a liquor store, but I'm not sure. Thanks for all the help and advice.

Lorena said:

A 1 gallon glass jug, or better yet a 4L Carlo Rossi jug is about all you need along with an airlock and some cheap siphon tubing.

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Yeah! I've got seven of those Carlo Rossi jugs. They're perfect (and free if you live in an area with a lot of recycle bins and college students).

sleepygo said:

Cool I'll check out the wine recipe. Well, actually I was sharing my interest in making alcoholic beverages with my roommate and the next time I saw him he had come back from the supermarket with some of the ingredients ^_^ He got the easy stuff but couldn't find any of the more essential ingredients. He did get some dry yeast, but its bread yeast. Would that work? I figure you can get the yeast, acid, and the enzyme at a liquor store, but I'm not sure. Thanks for all the help and advice.

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Bread yeast will ferment liquid, but it won't taste too nice. It's for bread. If you had been in a liquor store, you might know that proper yeast, acid and enzyme are NOT available there, they are available at home brew stores. Correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect you are underage.

nope, I'm not underage. I just don't go to liquor stores. I buy my alcohol at the supermarket and whatnot. It's a lot closer than anything else were I live.

We've had a run of minors posting on the board lately, so I'm a little suspicious these days. Any home brew center will have the ingredients you need. If none are local to you, there are many online.

Oh, no worries, I understand completely. I'd rather you ask me and make sure than let minors flood where they aren't supposed to be. Yeah, I doubt there's a home brew center in Nacogdoches. Is there a specific online store that you prefer over others?

Ok so I took Yooper chick's advice and started with a cider. I was using a balloon for the airlock and today when I went to check on it, the balloon had come off. It couldn't have been more than two hours, is my brew lost? Is there a more sure fire way so this doesn't happen? p.s. - I am rooting for the Colts today!

sleepygo said:

Ok so I took Yooper chick's advice and started with a cider. I was using a balloon for the airlock and today when I went to check on it, the balloon had come off. It couldn't have been more than two hours, is my brew lost? Is there a more sure fire way so this doesn't happen? p.s. - I am rooting for the Colts today!

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Rooting for the Colts, eh? Well, I was going to help but now... nevermind. Figure it out for your own damn self!!! GO BEARS!!!!



(j/k)

anything you can get to cap the hole at the top and have a tube coming out of it to let the CO2 escape will work. if you have a home brew store nearby you can get a rubber stobber with a hole in the top that a tube would fit into. keep in mind cider will get better with time too.

may have missed this but are you not looking to make beer and just wine. you could just get a prehopped malt extract no boil kit and make that could be ready to drink in a couple of weeks. very easy and no mess.